Diamonds and Pearls
by sarafinna
Summary: I was about to push off and go back up but a wave had come down on the spot I was at. I collided with something. I felt a sharp pain in my stomach and saw red, with black spots. Everything went black and when I awoke I met two clear blue eyes. Please R
1. Chapter 1

The Memories of My Merman and Me

Introduction:

This is a story of my freshman year in college. A story of romance and fantasy. A story of a young girl (that's me) losing her constant being of self-consciousness and learning to become confident in herself. This is a story about my merman.

Chapter 1 –

College is supposed to be a blast right? Parties, friends, boys, freedom? Of course there is that whole learning thing and planning for the future, but that's just a small detail. Well college in Hawaii was probably about ten times as good. Yeah we had classes and stuff but there was so much freedom it was incredible. I'd always looked forward to college because I had grown up in a relatively small town in Northern California and my high school consisted of only 1300 students; so college looked like a great opportunity for me. My time to date, and love, and learn, and just be free; to be independent was what I looked forward to the most.

I got into Kahakuloa University with some help from an academic scholarship. So did my best friends and housemates that came with me from the lonely city in Nor Cal. Because of these series of scholarships, all of our parents decided to buy us a house on the beach. It was not the most ideal house on the whole island: it was in a small secluded area and we had to take several back ryeoads to get there, but when we did we knew it was perfect.

The house was huge and surrounded by jungle on two sides. It was a bit of a fixer upper, the deck and the balcony were unsafe and so all summer before college began we started renovating it ourselves. The paint and left over furniture inside was disastrous, but luckily all four of us have keen design sense so we ended up making several trips to Sherwin Williams and did a lot of online IKEA shopping. We kept our house to a simple yet luxurious atmosphere and by the time term began we only had the kitchen and bathrooms left to finish.

There were 6 bedrooms; four big ones and two slightly smaller rooms. And we could all decorate our rooms how we wanted. I went with some dark furniture that I had from home, and used colors that were found in peacock feathers. One of the spare bedrooms we set up for guests but the other we made our own little library.

So yeah, our house was totally freaking awesome but the best part was the back yard. At first there was a lot of junk back there, but after we cleared it all out we found a small lot of grass that turned into sand, then led directly to the ocean. It was perfect, sheer bliss, heaven, and all the other words that evoke good feelings.

We had a successful routine when classes began. All four of us had purposely chosen classes so that we would have Friday off. So after four days of, for the most part boring, classes, Thursday night we would clear out all the furniture in the living room, bring three mattresses down from upstairs, and set up this wicked mattress vault. This was done by sandwiching one vertical mattress between two horizontal mattresses and then jumping over the vertical mattress. We would accompany this weekly ritual with episodes of Ninja Warrior and staying up until 4 in the morning until we all fell asleep in the living room on the mattresses. The rest of the weekend was spent sleeping in, grocery shopping, going to Costco, swimming, and doing homework.

But, enough of our house and our lives, this is about a story…

**A/N:** **Thanks for reading. I really don't like the title of this story, so if anyone reads this and can help me out and i really like you're suggestion, i'll reward you in some way, haven't really decided what yet. - sarafinna**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The professor was talking about the chemical makeup of butane and I was trying to pay attention, I really was, but his monotonous voice made my eyes droop, and my pencil drop, my head started slumping forward, until…Shoot no. Have to stay awake no matter how boring! Where's my gum, I need gum, that'll keep me up.

I fumbled through my purse for some gum but all I could find was an old piece that had fallen out of the package and most likely had tons of purse germs on it. I looked at it contemplating whether to eat it and possibly get sick from my purse germs, or risk falling asleep during the lecture. I had almost decided to eat it when the bell rang. Thank you God almighty.

I gathered my things and walked out of the lab into the bright sunny quad. I love the sunshine; the warmth on my face makes me feel like I can rule the world. I went to the parking lot seeing how Chem was my last class of the day and got into my car. I drove home and knew I'd have the house to myself because Dallas and Kathryn still had one more class and Kiara was at work already. I cherished these Thursday afternoons where I could be alone. I love my housemates but I'm one of those people that needs to just do things by themselves once in a while.

I threw my bag on the floor by the doorway and thought of nothing but swimming. I threw on a really cute purple Roxy bikini and double knotted everything. I wanted to go for a dip but I'm so not into the whole "I'm such a slut I'm going to show my boobs off in case someone sees me" and trust me, some girls do that. After checking I was _secure_, I grabbed some sunscreen and my favorite Disney princess towel from the bathroom.

When I walked out the back sliding glass door, my bare feet skipped along the grass, and then hit the hot sand of the beach. I stopped for a second to look at the ocean and squish the sand between my feet. When we arrived here, our beach was littered with broken glass, trash, those plastic soda ring things, and some really sick stuff. Sick as in, while we were cleaning we found a tampon and a condom. We spent a whole week coming out here every afternoon with plastic gloves and some cheap barbecue tongs we bought at the dollar store; to make sure our beach was beautiful and trashless. It worked.

I looked at the sun glinting off of the large waves coming toward the beach. I thought to myself: "This is truly paradise". After thinking about the word truly, I started thinking about Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and that girl whose name was Truly Scrumptious. Then I started humming the song to myself. Jeeze I can get so sidetracked sometimes.

I walked into the cool, refreshing water stopping only once so that the water could lick my calves. I kept wading in until I was waist deep and then did this little mini dive thing into the water. Ahhhh yes! Etssss nice (in one of those Borat voices).

I swam. And I swam. I stroked. And I did those little mini dive things under the waves. I had always been a strong swimmer but I really liked a challenge and the waves that day were definitely a challenge. The water was so clear I could almost see the ocean floor when I opened my eyes underwater.

I went under again, and opened my eyes to the surrounding ocean, the salt water stinging my poor eyelets but whatev, it was worth it. I saw a shimmer of light reflecting off of something on a rock not so far from me, so I went back up, waited for the next wave to roll over me, took a deep breath and then dove down deep.

This is one of those bad hidden rocks that are especially dangerous to surfers. Oh surfing I still haven't' tried that, I mentally added surfing to my to-do-list. Anyway, I dove down to the rock and hunted for the shiny. What I saw was just an old Fritos' wrapper turned inside out. Mmhmmm disappointing. I was about to push up and go back up but I was too late. A wave had come down on the spot I was in, hard.

The water churned around me and I felt myself being tossed and played with like a marionette in the hands of a very disturbed and violent kid. Suddenly I collided with something. Shit. It must have been the rock. My eyes saw red for a second and I felt a searing pain in my head and abdomen. The red in my eyes started to be spotted with black. My head began to feel weightless, it still hurt, but I felt like it was floating. The blackness consumed my vision. Shit, I was going to die. And then I was going to hell for cursing so much. Damn't.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** So I need some feedback. Should the chapters be longer or shorter. I tried to make this one a lot longer so I hope it's better. And any criticism I'll happily accept.

Chapter 3

When I opened my eyes I saw two pools of water. "So this is what hell looks like, exciting" I thought. My head hurt. Was that supposed to happen in heaven? Actually my throat hurts too, and my stomach….hey what's going on.

I tried to sit up and was overcome by a rack of coughs that resulted in water spewing from my mouth. Cute. So now my throat burns more that's good.

Then a voice spoke, and it wasn't a regular voice, it was a deep, sultry, enchanting voice: "Wow there, you shouldn't try to sit up yet".

I then felt I hand on my head comforting me in a gentle way. Who the hell is this guy?

After my fit of coughing, I laid my head back down and scrutinized this mystery man. Wow. He was FINE. Like, how cliché is this, but Greek god sexy. He had the whole wavy light brown hair and tan thing going on. And his eyes. Were. Incredible. They were blue as blue as the water he was in and they were filled with….was that concern? I realized I must have been looking into his eyes when I first woke up.

Okay Eva now say something clever so he doesn't think you're a complete dumbass. "Am I dead? Because I forgot to feed my fish". Wow that's the best you can come up with. I don't even have fish. Where the hell did that come from?

His eyes sparkled and his lips curled upward into one of those really cute grins that only extremely hot guys are capable of. Hey I think I see dimples! Even better.

"No you're not dead, but you're hurt so you need to stay still until my friend comes to stitch you up" Oh man, he used that voice again. That really deep, sexy voice.

Hurt? I remembered the pain in my head that I'd gotten used to already. Then I looked down and saw his hand on my stomach with some little white corners of something sticking out from beneath his hand. I put my hand over his and lifted it off my stomach to see several pads of gauze covered in blood. My blood (well obviously, I'm so blonde sometimes). I lifted the gauze up to but there was so much blood I couldn't tell how bad the laceration was. I put the gauze back down and lowered his hand back onto my stomach.

"Oh I see". I replied to him.

I looked around us to see we were in some sort of cave. The walls were a deep grayish blue and were jagged. I was lying on a stone ledge but Mr. Hottie was in the water. It looked to me that the water was the only exit or entrance into the cove.

"Uhhh, where are we?" I asked, probably sounding insanely stupid.

He looked at me and smiled again which made my heart beat faster or maybe that was from blood loss. But would losing blood make your heart beat faster or slower? Oh well it doesn't matter. "We're in my private cove. No one really knows about it so this is where I come to just be alone and think". He explained to me.

I was still a little bit confused by all this. "Ummm okay. Yeah. I'm still a little bit confused by all this. Maybe you should tell me what happened".

"Uhhh Okay", I saw a flash of worry glance across his eyes. "Well I was swimming in the ocean when I saw you. You went under the water and you didn't come back up so I dived under to search for you. I saw the wave slam you into that rock and I reached you just as you lost consciousness. I pulled you back to the surface and swam here".

He was lying. Great he was a really hot liar. How dense did he think I was? First off, the only way that I could tell into this cove was through water. And second, why didn't he just swim to land and call an ambulance. Maybe he was a secret agent hiding from the government. Like a Jason Bourne kind of thing. Matt Damon was so hot in that movie. Growl.

There was an awkward silence between the two of us. Neither of us very comfortable with this situation.

He was the first to break the quiet: "My name's Kai by the way, you know in case you were wondering".

"Oh yeah, I'm Eva" I replied. Kai that's an intriguing name. "Kai, that's an intriguing name, what does it mean?"

"Yeah, it's sea in Hawaiian" he answered me.

"Oh and thank you by the way", I told him.

"For what?" he asked.

"Well for saving my life". Duh.

"Well how could I let you die" he said matter of factly.

I blushed slightly "Well…" but I was interrupted by a splash in the corner of the cove. We both looked over and I saw a blonde head rise out of the water. It was a girl. A very pretty girl. Well, maybe pretty was an understatement. She was gorgeous. Long blond hair, blue eyes, high cheekbones and a perfectly flawless complexion.

She looked at Kai like she was excepting something. Maybe she was.

He turned back to look at me and smiled: "I have to go talk to her. I'll be right back", he picked my hand up and put it over the gauze on my stomach. "Keep some pressure on this okay, the bleeding has almost stopped".

"Sure thing", I assured him.

He swam to her. I turned my head to watch him go. His strong muscular arms cutting through the water, with his hair slightly spikey from being wet. Oh and his tail shimmered beneath the surface of the water. …Wait…His tail!


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

My breath stopped in my throat. A tail! Like a "The Little Mermaid" tail. I've got to be dreaming. I blinked my eyes a couple of times but the tail was still there, and even better she had one too! So merpeople do exist. Wow, never thought I'd see this day. But I wasn't disturbed the tail, if anything it was intriguing and kinda hot.

I stopped gazing at his tail and watched him converse with the beautiful girl. She also had a tail! This was all very over whelming that I began to feel dizzy so I laid my head back onto the rock and concentrated on breathing in and out.

Who was this mystery girl? Was she his lover? Well, duh, that would explain so much. I mean, come on, he's way too gorgeous to be single. This was upsetting. He was taken. Did I actually think I had a chance with him? I mean, I'm not the prettiest fish in the sea…oh bad cliché. I was just average looking, with my dark brown hair, brown eyes, and round face. I had small Asian eyes, compared to _her_ big beautiful sapphires, and I was just kind of boring. The most appealing part of me was probably my…collarbone. I was thin, but not skinny; I was mostly muscle from all the exercise I do, so I was heavy, but slender at the same time.

I heard movement in the water and saw both of them coming over to me. My heart started beating faster, which only made the dizziness worse.

Kai looked at me with a cute crooked smile, "Eva, this is Cora Jean, she brought some supplies and can stitch up the cut on your stomach and bandage your head".

She flashed me a smile, "Hi Eva, you can call me C.J. Everyone does except for Kai."

I smiled back at her trying to be nice. If she was going to help me I couldn't act like a bitch. "Thanks".

From the water she pulled out a Ziploc bag filled with more gauze, some scissors, medical thread, and a vial filled with a clear liquid.

She pulled out the container with the clear stuff and applied it to some gauze. She looked at me, her eyes telling me she was sorry, and said: "I have to clean your wound so this is probably going to hurt a lot, but it won't get infected which would hurt even more".

I sighed and closed my eyes, "K, I can take it".

She took off the crimson gauze and firmly pressed the white, cleaning gauze to my gory stomach.

Holy . My cut had turned into fire. The pain was ridiculous; it felt like it spread throughout my whole torso. I clenched my eyes shut and gritted my teeth. I wanted to cry, but I DON'T cry. I felt a hand grab mine and opened my eyes a sliver to see Kai above me, looking at me with such worry apparent on his flawless features.

He started stroking my hair. Right in front of his girlfriend? Lover? Wife? But it felt so nice that I gave into his touch and started to relax as the pain dissipated.

C.J threw the now bloodied gauze to the side and brought out a clean piece where she again applied the clear liquid. She looked at me again with a kind smile, "Okay I just have to do it one more time".

She applied the cloth to my wound, and yet again, fire spread from my cut like a lighted match in front of a jet of aerosol hairspray. It felt as if someone had punched me so hard in the stomach that their fist went right through the skin and now their hand was groping around in my insides. I clenched Kai's hand tight and he continued to stroke my hair while looking at me like he cared so much.

C. J. wiped the rest of the blood from my skin and threaded a needle she had pulled from the baggy. She told me: "This might sting a little too, but not nearly as bad".

She was right. It did sting, but it was bearable. I only felt some tugging and several little stings. When she was done she wiped my stomach down with some gauze again. She took out a little tube of Neosporin and gently put it on the wound and then applied one of those big, clear, waterproof bandages.

After watching her work, I sighed and let my head drop to the rough surface of the cave. I closed my eyes for a quick sec and when I opened them I saw Kai's face hovering over mine. His lips were pursed and he looked right into my eyes.

"You alright Eva?" He queried.

I gave him a little half smile and nodded, my heart banging against my chest again. How does he have this power over me? No other guy has made me feel this way?

C.J. then put some more Neosporin on the tiny cut on my forehead and put some butterfly bandages on it. By this time I was feeling quite exhausted and my dizziness had returned. I glanced at C.J. and saw her putting her supplies back in their little baggy along with my bloody gauze which went in a separate smaller baggy.

C.J. looked at me and said: "I've got to go now, it was nice to meet you Eva".

I smiled, "Oh, thank you so much, it was nice meeting you too".

She smiled back and then turned to Kai, "I'll see you at home".

She then dived into the water and with a wave of her beautiful magenta tail, she was gone.

I looked at Kai.

"So, merpeople do exist", I stated.

He looked down and smiled, clearly embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I just thought it would be hard to tell you".

"It's okay, I forgive you." I assured him.

He smiled at me, and I smiled back. "I need to get you back home before you're missed".

I was confused. "Yeah, okay, and how can you do that without me drowning?"

"I can swim above water you know."

Well jeeze, I feel dumb.

I let a silent "oh" escape my lips.

"Besides, I can swim really fast" He looked at me, his eyes playing with mine. He was so damn sexy, it wasn't fair. "You just have to promise me that you'll take it easy for a couple days".

That's so much easier said than done. "Cross my heart and hope to die", I promised.

He took one of my arms and wrapped it around his neck. He then put one of his finely toned arms beneath my knees and the other around my waist, careful to not disrupt my array of bandages. He slipped me into the water and now I was pressed against his warm, hard chest. Can anyone say heaven?

He looked down at me and smiled, "Take a deep breath and close your eyes".

I gulped in a mouthful of air and closed my eyes, resting my head against his shoulder/collarbone area.

I felt him dive into the water. His powerful tail propelled us forward, cutting through the water in swift strokes. I felt it when we resurfaced again, but my eyes couldn't open. They were to tired.

"Eva?"

"Mmhmm".

"K. Just checking. Good night".

"Night", I whispered as a let the blackness take over once again, and drifted off to a deep, dreamless sleep in Kai's arms.

**Please Review, and thanks for reading. I need help on where to take this story. Should it just be a story of romance, or should I add some evil bad guy? Help me decide :)**

**-sarafinna**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

I woke up on the couch to the sound of sobbing. Jeeze did someone die? I looked to the side with my eyes to see that the coffee table had been pulled out of the way and a mattress had been pulled down and covered with blankets and pillows. Sitting there in the living room were my three housemates, Dallas, Kathryn, and Kiara.

Kiara was sitting in the middle crying her eyes out and holding Kathryn who was also crying. Dallas was on the left just staring at the T.V. with a stony expression. I looked to see what they were watching. No wonder everyone was weepy. They were watching Titanic and it was that part when Jack's telling Rose to: "never let go of that promise" and Rose is saying "I'll never let go Jack, I'll never let go".

I tried to sit up but I felt my stomach sting so I let out a little sigh and fell back on the couch. Dallas must have heard me because she turned around and looked at me worriedly.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty. How ya feelin'?" she asked lightheartedly.

Kiara and Kathryn turned around at the sound of her voice, and came to join her.

"Good, thanks", I replied.

Wait how did I end up on the couch, now I was curious.

"So guys, what happened?" I asked eagerly.

"Well", Kat started. "I was walking out of class when my phone started tickling me and when I answered it some stranger told me that you were injured".

"Oh jeeze", I interrupted.

"He said his name was Kai and that he was a friend of yours. He told me that you got hurt swimming and he had brought you back to the house, but you were sleeping. I asked him how he got my number and said he found the "in case of emergency" numbers on the fridge. He seemed really nice and he had one of those hot guy voices", she relayed.

I nodded in agreement to that one.

Kiara continued: "So we rushed home to find you lying on the couch with a blanket, and no mystery man". She sounded a little disappointed.

"Oh", I began. "So I guess I kinda ruined super fun Thursday, huh?"

"Course not, we can skip one Thursday", Dallas assured me. "But I've been meaning to ask you. How stitched you up? It looks pretty professional".

I thought back to those bittersweet moments inside the water cave. "Oh that was Kai's friend C.J. she came to help out".

Kiara let out a little chuckle, "C.J., like Baywatch".

We all smiled at her until the endearing moment was interrupted by a loud rumbling. What was it? An earthquake? A tractor? A rabid dog that used to be a good dog but got into a fight with a rabid wolf like Old Yeller? Well the answers to all is no. It was my stomach. It was hungry. It was so hungry, it could probably eat that rabid dog, gross I know.

Kiara looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Hungry, much?"

"When am I not?" I replied sarcastically.

Kat stood up and smiled down at me in my pathetic and vulnerable state. I _hate_ feeling pathetic and vulnerable.

"No worries, I'll get you some left over lasagna", she said as she walked over to the kitchen.

Dallas looked down at me with a smirk, "So tell us about Kai. Hot or not?" she asked.

"Definitely hot", I answered back.

"Ooh la la", Kiara taunted.

"You have no idea. He has these crystal clear blue eyes, and hair that is light brown and kinda spiky. The whole time he was talking to me I just wanted to wrap my fingers into his hair and ….other stuff", I explained getting a little too carried away.

"Nice, but what about his body?" Kiara asked.

We were then interrupted by Kathryn: "Hey Ev, what do you want to drink?"

"Uh can you mix me a Doctor Beer?" I asked back.

"Sure thing", she replied.

Doctor Beer is like my weakness. Not only does it sound kinda kinky and strange, but it is so delicious and simple. It's just Root Beer and Doctor Pepper mixed together, but it is sheer bliss.

I turned back to Kiara and Dallas. "His body is _my_ wonderland. He's got those abs that are like muscly but not too muscly that it looks like he's steroidal. And his arms are so defined they look like something I've only dreamed about".

"Sounds like you're falling", Dallas said hopefully.

"Nonsense, I don't fall, I trip", this made us all start giggling.

The truth is I don't fall at all. I had a lot of guy friends. A lot of guy friends that I would date sometimes, but I'd never found someone worthy of falling for. Some guys fell for me, it's sad to say, I'm naturally flirtatious. I don't try to be, but it just happens. So sometimes, a guy will become attached, and I just have to cut the cord.

Kathryn came back in and we watched more movies while I ate. We watched _Footloose_ together. I know, Kevin Bacon, drool. And after had a sixth season of _Friends_ marathon until we had all fallen asleep. I'm a little OCD about how I sleep. I can't truly fall asleep until everything is taken care of, and that means brushing my teeth, washing my face, showering when I wasn't too tired. So I woke up when everyone was fast asleep and struggled to get to the bathroom. My legs were still slightly weak so I used various pieces of furniture to keep me upright.

After completing my nightly routine, I staggered back to the couch, stepping around my best friends and flopped back onto the white suede sofa. I pulled the soft blanket up to my chin, relaxed my body, and closed my eyes. I fell asleep while trying to remember Kai: his eyes, hair, and especially his tail. I also tried to playback the sound of his voice and how caring he had been, but then I remembered C.J. and realized I had no chance in hell.

­­­­­­­­­­­

**So I've decided to change the name of my story to Diamonds and Pearls. I'll tie it in somehow but I like it much better cause its like diamonds are made out of coal, and pearls are made out of grains of sand, which kind of relates to my main characters, one's human, one's….not. If that made any sense at all, it did in my brain. So this was a boring chapter but it should get better. Please review.**

**Sarah**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry it took me so long to update and thanks for all the great reviews********. My next project is to put a conflict together and find a pic of the ideal Kai to put on my profile. **

I woke up the next morning at noon on the couch still feeling like complete shit. I sat up with a groan, blinking away the bright light that streamed into my eyes from the open window. I looked around searching for any sign of life other than myself. The living room had been cleaned since our little slumber party the night before. I walked into the kitchen to see a long note on the fridge. I grabbed it from under the pink watermelon magnet and read it while preparing my traditional bowl of Lucky Charms. Lots of cereal with just a little bit of milk. Why the hell would anyone drown their lucky charms in milk?

The note was from my housemates saying they would be out and telling me to take it easy. How does one take it easy? I mean really, who is expecting me to lay in bed all day? I thought my friends knew me better. Besides, I had to go to work.

After, breakfast I started a load of laundry and got dressed. Video Stop didn't really care what I wore as long as it included the official Video Stop name tag. Yeah I worked at the video store…big deal. It gave us a discount whenever we wanted to have hot movie nights, like last night. We all planned out our jobs. I worked at the video store, Kiara was at the campus book store, Kathryn was employed at Safeway, and Dallas worked at a surf shop. She was big on surfing, like Huge with a capitol H, besides, they had really cute clothes. So we pretty much could get employee discounts on whatever we needed. So I threw on some cute Abercrombie green shorts, an American Eagle blue tank, and these sick platform hemp sandals.

They didn't leave me a car. Great. So I had to resort to calling Jack. Jack was this guy, well obviously, but he works with me, and yeah he's cute, but he's such a goody-two-shoes. Which means I had him wrapped around my little finger. He's asked me out on several occasions but I told him I didn't want to ruin my friendship, besides, and in the words of Dane Cook, I want a fucking bad boy.

Jack picked me up in his green pick-up (what is with guys and pick-ups? To me, they're more of a pick down. The kind of car I want my one and only to have is some kind of convertible to show that he likes to show me off). He pulled into our driveway and got out to open the door for me (see? Way too nice, yeah he does get some gentlemen points, but I mean come on, we were just going to work). We got inside and tried to make some small talk:

"So how ya doin'?" he asked.

"Not too bad, and you?" I retaliated.

"I'm pretty good, I heard you had an accident yesterday" he said.

Oh great, I forgot that I live with the three biggest gossips ever. Everyone probably knows about my little mishap by now.

"Oh yeah it was no big deal, I'm better now" I assured him.

"Good, just don't work yourself to hard today" he told me with a little innocent church boy smile. Jack was the kind of guy that wore polo shirts way too much with his plain khaki pants.

"No problem", I said. We didn't talk for the rest of the ride. It wasn't too far and Fleetwood Mac started playing on the radio so of course I started singing along.

I'm usually the cashier with Megs at work and Jack usually is taking inventory, stocking, and stuff like that, so when we arrived we went separate ways. Megan was already there, she was really nice and really, really smart, she practically aced the SAT. I sat there at the register for about an hour just reading my book, it was _Two Way Street_, really good book, and helping the occasional customer, but by about two I started getting really restless. Work was slow and I needed to get up and walk around. So, I told Megan I was getting some ice cream and walked over to Safeway. Video Stop is in the middle of a big shopping complex so I could pretty much just walk to anything.

I started out on the concrete path, looking at the people walking by. One of my favorite pastimes is people watching, I also like to figure out how some people are related, or imagine what their life is like.

By the time I'd past the wireless cell phone store, I noticed that the same person had been following me for awhile. I shrugged it off but when I turned to go in Safeway he continued pursuing me. I bent down for a sec to pretend to tie my shoes and looked up at him from under my hair. He was wearing a hooded sweatshirt despite the beautiful weather with the hood up, hiding his face from me. But as I tied my shoes, he stopped to look at a tower of soda, and when I got up to leave, he continued following me. I went down the cereal aisle and quickened my pace trying to distance myself from him. I put about a good twenty-five yards between us and when I reached the end of the cereal aisle I made a U-turn into the next aisle and set off at a sprint.

I ran down the empty canned food aisle. I'd almost reached the end when I sneaked a peak back to see my stalker wasn't following me. At that instant I ran into something hard and yelled out a yelp of pain when the impact agitated the cut on my stomach. I stumbled backwards but the man caught me and enveloped me into his arms.

And so I was awkwardly pressed against his chest. His firm, muscly, and somewhat familiar chest. I was about ready to knee him in the groin when I glanced up into his eyes, and saw the blue orbs of goodness I'd been dreaming about the night before.

"Kai" I said his name in more of a whisper.

"Hey Eva" he said with a really brilliant smile.

"What the hell Kai? Why were you stalking me?" I said with a little more force, but before he could answer, I looked down, holy shit, he had legs. "Holy shit! You have legs!" I exclaimed, slightly angry.

He laughed at me. How could he have the nerve to laugh at me? First, he stalked me. Then, he scared the living shit out of me, and now he's laughing. Pissed much?

So I walked away. He didn't deserve my attention if he was going to be a total ass.

I felt his hand grasp mine as I reached the Campbell's soup products. His fingers intertwined with mine, he stopped me from moving. I looked up at him, fully ready to have a bitch fit, but he was looking back with the most innocent puppy dog eyes ever. His expression bore into the very depths of my soul and made me feel really guilty.

"I give you my most humble apologies for being such a jerk" he said while still staring at me with those pathetic puppy dog eyes that moved my heart.

I had to forgive him. How could I not? He pretty much saved my life. No….wait….he actually saved my life.

"Apology accepted. Oh and thanks again by the way", I replied, my anger dissipating.

I lead us in a walk toward the believed frozen food, i.e. ice cream, aisle. Our hands continued to be interlocked with one another.

"For scaring you shitless" he produced.

"No. For…you know…yesterday" I explained.

"Oh right….yesturday. About yesterday. Shouldn't you be at home getting some rest. You almost died yesterday" he said.

"I'm fine. Rest is for pansies" I replied. "Oh and about yesterday, was I dreaming or were you a mythical creature with a really long tail?"

"You were not dreaming, and I'm only that mythical creature with really long tail sometimes", he answered.

"So you mean the evil sea hag stole something of yours and gave you legs for three days?" I joked.

He chuckled lightly. "No, someone's been watching one too many Disney movies, if you know what I mean" he said with a wink. " I mean I only turn into a merman when I'm in the ocean."

By this time, we had reached the beloved aisle of wonders and I was searching for my favorite Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream.

"Really? That's convenient. How 'bout your girlfriend? She probably won't be very happy about you hanging out with me" I questioned.

"Remind me again who my girlfriend is?" he countered.

We were now walking toward the checkout because I had successfully located my little carton of heaven.

"Oh you know…. That C.J. girl" I said.

He looked at me like I was absolutely crazy. "EWwww. Cora Jean is my sister".

"Oh your sister. That makes sense", I said while paying for my creamy little delight.

"You thought she was my girlfriend?"

"Yeah, that or your wife, or your mistress", I explained with a smile.

"You're so sick" he produced.

"Hey, I didn't know", I said in the most innocent voice possible.

We walked outside along the shops so I could get back to work while we talked about what we were like, school, hobbies, most outrageous things we'd ever done. Mattress vaulting totally topped anything he had.

And when we got to Video Stop, we parted. He said he had his own job he had to get to, and I had to finish out my shift.

"I'll see you later, but I have my own job to get to so I've got to jet", he said outside Video Stop, with our hands still twisted together.

"K, but promise me next time we meet, you won't sneak up on me".

"Done" he answered as he raised my hand to his lips and gave me a quick kiss before dropping it. Then, he did this little bow, and walked away toward a blue mustang convertible (imagine the one Steven Strait had in the Covenant but dark blue) as I turned into my horrid hell of a job, with the thoughts of finding a spoon on my mind.


End file.
